You may have seen this story reported in the Shropshire Star: A bus company has been criticised for displaying vegan adverts on vehicles in Shropshire, which relies heavily on agriculture. Shropshire Council's deputy leader Steve Charmley, councillor for Whittington has hit out at Arriva for displaying an advert on the back of some buses, with a message about turning vegan for January.Mr Charmley has now protected his tweets, but the Star quotes what he said: Whilst I don't object to anyone choosing what they eat and when they eat it. I really object to arriva buses running Veganuary adverts in ...

The Lib Dem Newbies group is run by and for new and not-quite-so-new Liberal Democrat members. There's a great buzz about the group, and it's a wonderful source of information, support and inspiration.

Each year I have a pre-Christian lunch with three fiends; one a fellow Liberal Democrat, the other two keen Labour party supporters, one whom campaigns actively in a Labour/Tory marginal. He asked me how I would vote in such a marginal , and without much thoght or explanation I replied "Liberal." Afterwards and on reflection, I thought this might have been a bit blunt, so I wrote him the following letter (names have been changed): Dear Jonathan. At our pre-Christmas lunch you asked me how I would vote in a Labour/Troy marginal where a Liberal Democrat candidate had "no chance" ...

This won the Retro Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation for 1954 (awarded in 2004), beating "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century", It Came from Outer Space, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Invaders from Mars. It performs pretty respectably in the IMDB rankings, 8th and 11th on the two systems, with Roman Holiday and Peter Pan competing for the top two slots. I have not yet watched From Here To Eternity, that year's Oscar winner; oddly enough the only two 1953 films which I am sure that I previously seen are both French, Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot / Mr ...

Two views of the harbour at Dartmouth, the first taken in 1955 and the second a couple of days ago. Not very much seems to have changed in the last 64 years. The walls are...Continue Reading The post Dartmouth Harbour in 1955 and 2019 appeared first on ten pence piece.

Malta is the smallest Member State of the European Union, just 122 square miles in area, with a population of about 400,000, on the frontier between Europe and Africa. On its own, fairly insignificant, especially now that there is peace in Europe and the North African states pose little threat. But the Maltese mostly agree that membership of the European Union is a good thing. Our taxi driver on Thursday evening noted that, prior to joining, Maltese emigration was to the distant Commonwealth - Canada and Australia, as well as the United Kingdom. Now, young Maltese can travel to Europe ...

Here are my cheers and jeers for this week: Cheers this week for the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), which has argued that large-scale testing is detrimental to pupils' wellbeing. The wisdom of starting testing at the age of 5 has, rightly, been contentious. While much of the debate around National Standardised Assessments has often been political, the EIS's intervention shows the need for not simply a "review" but a new evidence-based approach to primary education. Cheers to Billy Connelly, who talked openly about life at the age of 75 and his refusal to fear death. His explanation of "slipping ...

man with British birth certificate now stateless in Ghana the home office are bastards part 5638743 If you like what you see here (or even if you don't) please consider dropping me a tip: [IMG: Paypal Donate Button] [IMG: Buy Me an uncaffeinated beverage (because I'm allergic to coffee) at ko-fi.com] [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

I put this article to one side earlier in the week, but the Independent's piece reporting the views of the House of Lords Speaker that the number of peers should be reduced to remove "passengers" who do not contribute to debates has been nagging away at me. Norman Fowler says there are some members of the Lords who were given life peerages without understanding the requirements of the job. He wants to educe the size of the Lords from around 800 to a maximum of 600. That would involve encouraging some peers to retire and restricting the number of people ...

Did you know that a disproportionate number of those stopped and checked at airports were BAME people? Did you know that if, as a result of those checks, they and their families missed their flight, there was no compensation? Thanks to the Lib Dem Campaign for Racial Equality, this issue is now being given the attention it deserves. Watch Dr Mohsin Khan outline the problem and explain what LDCRE has done to try and sort things out. Being racially profiled and stopped and searched in aiports is humiliating. BAME passengers suffer disproportionately from this. Vice-chair @thedoctorkhan speaks about his work ...

Well, I mentioned in my review of 2018 that Bold Lane in Aughton had still not been resurfaced so imagine my surprise when I was out cycling in Aughton yesterday and my eyes fell upon this sign in Bold Lane:- You can make out some of the poor surface in the shot below but the worst of it is further up the lane on both carriageways Obviously, I'm glad that Lancashire County Council are finally getting around to resurfacing a lane that in recent times has been in pretty awful condition. However, I still wonder whether if the lane had ...